Posted on April 23, 2025May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips What is the Flamenco Guitar? What is the Flamenco Guitar? by Richard Bruné, Eugene Clark, and John Park, with moderator and organizer Jeffrey Elliott from their 2006 GAL Convention panel discussion Originally published in American Lutherie #97, 2009 Jeffrey Elliott: Our panelists are all esteemed flamenco guitar makers and accomplished flamenco players. I’ll begin by asking each of them to answer a single big question: What is the flamenco guitar? Richard Bruné: Here’s a little quiz. These pictures (below) show three guitars by Domingo Esteso, illuminated from the inside so we can see the bracing pattern. Would anybody venture a guess, according to conventional wisdom, which is the flamenco guitar? The one on the left is a 1932 with rosewood sides and back. In the middle is a 1936; it’s part of my collection. And the one on the right (also far right) is the flamenco guitar, La Maravilla, which was made for Ramón Montoya. It actually has very high action, almost like a classical guitar. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on March 1, 2025May 13, 2025 by Dale Phillips Thoughts on 12-String Guitars Thoughts on 12-String Guitars by Roger Alan Skipper Originally published in American Lutherie #113, 2013 We at the Guild of American Luthiers are quite often asked about 12-string guitars: What should be done to beef up a 6-string guitar plan to make it suitable for a 12-string configuration? What have the major builders done in the past, and how successful were their efforts? What are current builders doing? To find the answers to these questions, we queried several experienced luthiers: Dana Bourgeois of Pantheon Guitars in Lewiston, Maine ◆ Frank Ford of Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, California ◆ Charles Freeborn of Freeborn Guitars in Portland, Oregon ◆ David Freeman of Timeless Instruments in Tugaske, Saskatchewan ◆ Evan Gluck of New York Guitar Repair in Manhattan, New York ◆ John Greven of Greven Guitars in Portland, Oregon ◆ George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, Tennessee ◆ Arnold M.J. Hennig of Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan ◆ Bruce Petros of Petros Guitars in Kaukauna, Wisconsin ◆ Andy Powers of Taylor Guitars in El Cajon, California ◆ Tim Shaw of Fender Guitars in Scottsdale, Arizona ◆ Marc Silber of Marc Silber Music in Berkeley, California ◆ Robert Steinegger of Steinegger Guitars in Portland, Oregon. Though this article is arranged as though we were having a roundtable discussion, it was assembled from individual responses; differing opinions are simply the results of varying experiences, rather than dissension. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on March 1, 2025May 13, 2025 by Dale Phillips Stahl Style 6 Guitar Stahl Style 6 Guitar built by Carl and August Larson, Serial #81225 “Lisa” by January Williams Originally published in American Lutherie #112, 2012 I first saw this instrument when Denis Merrill brought it to Harp Guitar Gathering VI at Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon, October 2008. Bob Hartman saw it then and confirmed that this is an authentic instrument built by the Larson brothers in Chicago.1 (see A Brief History of The Larson Brothers) I liked it immediately; it has a wonderful sound, dynamic range, and clarity. It came to me again at the next NW Handmade Musical Instrument Exhibit (also at Marylhurst) in April of 2009, as Denis kindly loaned it to me for an extended time, and the idea of documenting and duplicating it bloomed into a project.2 This guitar has nicely figured Brazilian rosewood back and sides and a spruce top, all bookmatched. It has a one-piece mahogany neck, an ebony fingerboard, and an ebony bridge with a slanted saddle.3 The bracing is spruce; the shop-made triangular kerfed lining is Spanish cedar with a very thin web, and there is a thin mahogany reinforcement plate under the bridge. The guitar is decorated with classical-style multicolor wood purfling around the front and back edges, and down the center strip on the back. The rosette is typical of American steel-string instruments with three separate elements: narrow inner-and-outer veneer line motifs (B-W-B) and a separate wider central design of colored mosaic similar to the other inlay. White plastic is used for binding the front and back, the heel cap, and a wedge at the tail joint. Mother-of-pearl is used for inlays on the headstock and bridge, and for fingerboard position markers. The instrument is lightly built and rather thin — less than 3" deep at the heel. On each side there are two cloth-tape reinforcements that extend under the kerfing, and three cloth reinforcing patches along the top joint in the lower bout between the bridge plate, the tone bars, and the tail block. There is a thin spruce reinforcement glued cross grain to the mahogany tail block. The neck has a slight V shape and a slotted headstock, and is joined at the 12th fret. The body is domed or arched to an unusual extent; measured across the lower bout at its widest, about a 10' radius of curvature across the back and 12' radius across the top. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 13, 2025May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Castles in Spain Castles in Spain Making a Classical Guitar with José Romanillos by Stephen Frith Originally published in American Lutherie #72, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 José and Liam Romanillos, with the help of Gerhard Oldiges, Tobias Braun, and Big Pep Milos, have shared their methods and ideas openly at a two-week guitar making master class each of the past two summers. I was lucky to be able to attend both sessions, held in the monastery of the Hermanos Maristas in Sigüenza, a medieval town in Spanish Castile. I couldn’t write down all that is available for the student at Sigüenza, but I will try to describe particularly the top-arching system. I used it in my own workshop for a year, then went back to find a few more pieces of the puzzle. Imagine a flat top of European spruce about 2.5MM thick cut exactly with the long-grain fibers, and exactly quartered all across. This guitar top is cut so that it fits within the ribs, and is then adjusted to the flexibility required. The edges of the lower bout are thinned further again to a flexibility all of which reflects the description of the work of Torres in José’s book Antonio de Torres Guitar Maker — His Life & Work. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 13, 2025May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Is “Guitar Design” an Oxymoron? Is “Guitar Design” an Oxymoron? by Steve Klein from his 2001 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Webster’s defines “oxymoron” as “a figure of speech in which opposites or contradictory ideas or terms are combined, e.g., sweet sorrow” and my personal favorite, “thunderous silence.” The second definition of “design” is “being able to make original plans.” When Todd Brotherton called to ask if I would speak here today, he mentioned that I’ve been doing my design thing for near on thirty years. And almost in the same breath, he called my ideas new and innovative. What’s wrong with this picture? Palm pilots are new. Downloading MP3s is new. Viagra is new. My ideas are no longer new. So why are the things that I’m trying to do still thought of as new? Or we might ask, why is the musical world so slow to change, when everything else in our culture seems to be on the fast track? Why might it take so long for acoustic guitars to evolve? This begs some questions, such as: Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
